


Dreams of the Dreamless

by SuperHeroTiger



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android Peter Parker, Android Spiderson AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Platonic Cuddling, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29859033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperHeroTiger/pseuds/SuperHeroTiger
Summary: Peter didn’t dream like normal people.No, his dreams were different. Memories as clear as day brushing against each other and leaving the imprint of something new. Something not quite real, but not quite fake either. Like he had become an audience member to a scene he had previously been the star of. They were a strange phenomenon, these dreams, but something that Peter had found himself enjoying more and more as the weeks went by.And maybe that was the worst part, because Peter knew that he shouldn’t. Shouldn’t be able to enjoy it; shouldn’t be able to remember it; shouldn’t be able to have it in the first place.Because Peter -like all androids- shouldn’t be able to dream at all....(Android Spiderson AU)
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 12
Kudos: 110





	Dreams of the Dreamless

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> It’s me, back at it again with yet another completely random Irondad AU hah! I had a lot of fun working on this one, and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it! Let me know what you thought in the comments (your support keeps me going!) and I hope you all have a great day!  
> -Superherotiger

Peter didn’t dream like normal people.

He didn’t slowly slip into unconsciousness and watch the fragments of his thoughts reform against the darkness, or cycle in and out of REM throughout the night. He didn’t get drawn out of slumber by the morning sun or startled awake by an alarm, and he didn’t care about the feel of the mattress or pillows he lay on.

No, his dreams were different. Memories as clear as day brushing against each other and leaving the imprint of something new. Something not quite real, but not quite fake either. Like he had become an audience member to a scene he had previously been the star of. They were a strange phenomenon, these dreams, but something that Peter had found himself enjoying more and more as the weeks went by.

And maybe that was the worst part, because Peter knew that he shouldn’t. Shouldn’t be able to enjoy it; shouldn’t be able to remember it; shouldn’t be able to _have it_ in the first place.

Because Peter -like all androids- shouldn’t be able to dream at all.

But there was no other way to describe the images playing out in his coding during his nightly shut downs. No other name for the phenomenon he had been experiencing for almost three weeks straight now. Despite all his programming that said it should be impossible, Peter had learnt to dream. And while it had been confusing at first, Peter began to look forward to his shutdown slideshows. Sometimes it would be like he was walking through the bustling streets of New York, and other times it would be like joining the Avengers for their weekly movie nights. Most often though, he was met with a familiar, chaotic lab and the bots -who were essentially his brothers- chirping at the mechanic humming energetically to the sounds of AC/DC beside him.

That was his favourite dream by far.

Peter hadn’t told his creator, Tony Stark, about the dreams yet. He worried that as soon as he mentioned something abnormal in his programming, Tony would kick into panic mode and review his code for a flaw, possibly taking the dreams away in the process. As wrong as he knew it was, Peter didn’t want to risk it. He enjoyed the dreams too much to jeopardise them, and even if there was a slight glitch in his AI, did it matter that much? It didn’t seem like it was doing him any harm.

So he kept the dreams a secret -despite never being coded with the ability to lie- and went about his life like any normal teenage android; energetic and always learning.

But then the ambush happened.

It had been a standard Hydra raid for the squad of super heroes, and Tony had assured the boy with a quick tussle of his hair that they’d be back by dinner time. They didn’t know that the information had been outdated. They didn’t know that _Hydra_ knew they were coming. But Peter watched and listened through a back door in Friday’s coding as the Avengers were caught by surprise inside the not-so-abandoned base, cries for backup and retreat blaring across the comms before all their signals went dead.

Peter had never been programmed to fear, but it was something he quickly learnt as he waited for some sign of hope that his team -his only family- was still alive out there.

It wouldn’t be until well past midnight that the Avengers finally returned, bruised and battered from every angle as they stepped off the bullet-ridden Quinjet. Peter was one of the first to meet them on the landing pad, alongside Pepper and Dr Cho who rushed her team forward to assess the wounded heroes. But as much as his artificial heart ached at the sight of the weary squad, it was Steve’s sharp call of “Tony first! He’s in critical condition,” that really made Peter’s entire system malfunction in terror.

Almost on instinct, Peter went to move towards the Quinjet and his injured creator, but a familiar gauntlet on his shoulder was quick to pull him away from the medics rushing up the ramp.

“It’s alright Pete, let the med-team do their work,” Rhodey said in a firm but soothing voice.

“He’s hurt,” Peter blurted out.

“He’ll be okay though,” Rhodey promised, tightening his grip on the boy’s shoulders. “He always is…”

So slowly, despite the burning urge to run forward and help his creator somehow, Peter leant back against the colonel’s still armoured chest and drew comfort from his steady presence. Rhodey had always been a source of security to the android, his rational nature perfectly balancing out Tony’s spontaneous personality.

But no amount of reassuring words or gentle touches could have prepared Peter for the sight of his creator -unconscious and bloodied and pale as a ghost- getting carted away on a stretcher, swarmed by the medics who relayed information too painful for the android to comprehend.

Peter only saw the damage for a moment -a mere flash- before Rhodey twisted him away from the horrific scene, but for someone with a photographic memory, a moment quickly became an eternity. A brand he could never forget. And later that night as the android shut down in an attempt to escape the reality that Tony was still in a critical condition in the Medbay, his once peaceful dreams became twisted into mosaics of crimson blood and warped, broken metal. Of a figure that should have been moving around the lab with an excited rhythm in his step but was instead laying deathly still in a cold, lonely cot. Of a set of warm, brown eyes that usually made Peter’s circuits ease up, but instead were clouded and empty. _Lifeless_.

For the first time in his entire lifespan, Peter was jolted out of stasis from his very own code, something he would usually be worried about if not for the panic tearing through his system from the horrors still imprinted in his vision. He couldn’t feel pain like normal humans did, but the gears in his chest had become tight and constricting; the arc reactor that kept him alive almost seeming to stutter like a heartbeat.

By the time he was finally able to still the twitch in his fingers, his systems had fully rebooted and the haunting images of blood and darkness became nothing more than a lost file in his archives. That didn’t stop the dread that had settled in his metal skeleton though, or the anxiety that thrummed through his wiring. The trails of his broken rest continued to linger over him like storm clouds hung over the skyline, and Peter shuddered with the realisation that his seemingly harmless lapse of code had spiralled into something far more dangerous.

Dreams torn down to nightmares.

The thought was so jarring, so downright terrifying that Peter physically lurched from the bed and scrambled to his desk in a flurry of panic. If there was something wrong in his code while Tony was still unconscious in the Medbay, there would be no way to fix it short of tearing himself apart and playing doctor and patient at the same time. An idea that Peter was sure his creator would be downright horrified by if he ever heard it.

So hooking himself in to Friday’s mainframe through a cable in his sternum, Peter quickly ordered a scan of all his internal systems for the cause of these awful glitches. Because they had to be a glitch, right? There had to be something _wrong_ with him…

The scan came back clear, and Peter could only stare at the results -his pristine, healthy results- in a confused, anxious haze.

“They’re clear,” Peter murmured.

“Yes. Were you expecting them to be otherwise?” Friday asked, a hint of concern lacing her robotic voice.

Rubbing his shoulder nervously, Peter replied “My stasis was interrupted… I think there’s something wrong with me…”

“Nothing in your scan would suggest a malfunction,” Friday said in her best attempt of reassurance. “Perhaps your system reboot has resolved the cause of the interruption?”

Peter rubbed at his temple and sighed, knowing that the reboots had never affected his regular dreams but hoping nonetheless that they might have cleared the horrors that had infected them. “Thanks Friday,” the android murmured as he pulled out his cable with a jerk. “I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Sleep well Peter,” the AI answered in an almost motherly chime.

It managed to coax a weak smile from the boy, but it was gone within the hour as he was hit with yet another barrage of nightmares in the midst of his usual stasis. He awoke with a jolt again but managed to settle the panic far quicker this time, forcing his body to remain still so not to alert Friday to his obvious malfunctions. She couldn’t know about the nightmares, because if she knew then she would tell Tony, and then he would know that Peter was _faulty_. That he was beyond repair, because Peter couldn’t even find what needed to be repaired in the first place!

So like with the dreams when they first started forming, Peter didn’t tell anyone about the nightmares. He forced out a smile, made frequent visits to the Medbay, and tried to focus on his creator’s recovering form instead of the broken one he was greeted with every night. He thought maybe, just maybe, if he saw Tony enough during the day -alive and breathing and smiling and teasing like always- he might be able to replace the bloodied images with new ones- _happier_ ones.

But still the nightmares came, again and again and again, hour after hour as Peter desperately tried to rest, until finally the effects of the internal reflected to the external. His movements became sluggish and stiff, and the electricity that once travelled behind his irises had become dull flickers instead of a vibrant glow. The constant scans and reboots had tired out his core while the lack of a full shut-down cycle left his body just as lethargic. In summary, he not only felt awful, but he looked it now too.

And while everyone in the tower had noticed his decline and tried to offer their help, there was only one person who would truly understand him. Who would even have a remote chance of fixing the mess he had created.

“Pete?”

The android paused at the doorway to the room, meeting his creator’s concerned gaze from where he sat propped up in a medical cot. Tony’s wounds had healed greatly from when he first arrived almost a week ago, but the doctors said he was still too injured to walk just yet, which drove the genius insane without the ability to tinker. And while Peter would usually find his frustration at least mildly amusing, he couldn’t bring himself to smile this time. Not after seeing his blood stained corpse every night for an entire horrendous week.

“Are you alright kid? You look worse than me,” Tony tried to joke, only for his smile to fall when Peter didn’t move from the doorway, joints locked in place. Sympathy was quick to overtake the concern however as Tony flashed the android a soft smile and waved him forward. “Come sit with me bud, I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I saw you yesterday morning,” Peter pointed out as he forced his legs to move.

“Feels like an eternity when you’re cooped up in here,” Tony laughed.

The familiar sound made Peter’s sensors light up for a moment, pleased to hear his creator happy once more, before it was washed away with that heavy dread and exhaustion shortly after. Peter moved to sit on the nearby chair like he had done in all his past visits but was stopped by a gentle grip on his wrist, blinking in confusion at Tony as he flickered his gaze over the android in concern. Taking in his creation’s jerky movements and dull eyes with a worried clench of his jaw.

“Sit with me,” the man eventually said after assessing Peter for a moment longer.

Hesitantly, Peter lifted himself onto the edge of the bed and stared down at his tightly clasped hands. The twitching had gotten worse in the past few days, and despite his best attempts to fix it alone, he couldn’t find the source of the reflex- both in his physical wiring or his code.

Tony would know how to fix it… he always knew how to fix things. But Peter didn’t want to worry his creator when he had his own health to think about, his own recovery to battle. That was the most important thing…

“What’s going through that head of yours Pete?” Tony asked as he squeezed his shoulder encouragingly. “Pepper said you’ve been quiet lately, and that you haven’t been joining Rhodey and her for dinner anymore.”

At that Peter winced, a flash of guilt overriding his system as he thought about the many meals he had missed with his family. It wasn’t like he could eat or anything, but it was just something they always did together. The one time of the day in a household of conflicting schedules where they could sit down and actually talk and smile and laugh with each other.

But without Tony there alongside them all, dinner quickly became an unfortunate reminder of what was missing. Of what they could have lost - _forever_ \- if things had gone differently.

“They’re worried about you kiddo,” Tony’s voice pressed on when the boy didn’t respond. “… _I’m_ worried about you.”

Like electricity rippling through his system, Peter straightened up and locked eyes with his creator who stared back at him with a solemn sigh. His words -though simple as they were- were enough to trigger a response from Peter’s core programming, the one that was pledged to easing the fears of those around him right alongside his innate desire to learn and evolve. If he had made the man worried, made his _family_ worried by closing himself off, then he had to find another solution.

Even if it meant admitting his own dysfunctions.

“I think… I think I’m broken,” Peter finally spoke, measuring his creator’s reaction which quickly spiked in fear.

“What? Why? What happened?” Tony asked rapidly, pulling the android a little closer to inspect him like Peter knew he would.

Well, it was too late to back out now.

“My nightly shut downs have been getting interrupted by… images… pieces from my archives,” Peter explained weakly. “The images are real, but… they get distorted into something untrue. Something that sends my system back into alert mode.”

Tony’s hands stilled over his shoulders almost instantly, and the android glanced up to find his expression bright with surprise. “You’ve been… _dreaming?_ ” Tony asked, awe and disbelief and wonder swirling around in the depths of his warm brown eyes.

“Sort of?” Peter shrugged. “They’re like… memories, but not at the same time. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“That’s… that’s amazing Pete,” the mechanic practically beamed, curiosity running wild in his eyes like the true inventor he was as he asked “How long has this been happening? A few days? A week?”

Peter adverted his gaze with a brief flutter of sheepishness, murmuring “A month…”

“A _month_?” Tony balked. “Wh-… why didn’t you tell me?”

Wincing in shame, Peter opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off by a strike of panic crossing Tony’s features as he tightened his grip on the android’s shoulders. “Have you not been able to sleep for a whole month Peter?” he asked, the concern now shifting into guilt as he stared upon his creation.

“What? No- no, no. Just this week, I promise,” Peter assured in the hopes to soothe his worries, which only served to confuse the man further.

“But you said you’ve been having dreams for a month.”

Shaking his head, Peter rushed to explain “Yes, I’ve been dreaming for a month, but it was only since this week, since you… you…” The words lodged in his throat, and his eyes grew wide with the same terror that had plagued his system since that night on the landing pad. The same pit of dread in his stomach from when Rhodey had turned him away from the gory sight of his creator, of his _friend_.

And Tony -who knew the inner workings of Peter’s mind as deeply as his own- didn’t miss the fear for a second, his eyes growing soft as he rubbed the boy’s shoulder in comforting circles.

It was only with his grounding touch that Peter was able to continue, hanging his head in defeat as he muttered “They’re not dreams anymore… they… they’re…”

“Nightmares,” Tony answered for him, his voice heavy with understanding as all the puzzle pieces fell into place.

And with no more places to run, no more excuses left, Peter could only nod and accept his own flawed code.

“I’m broken,” he repeated, spoken in a whisper, but echoing throughout the room like thunder.

“You’re not broken,” Tony’s voice returned just as boldly, sliding his hand under the curve of Peter’s jaw until their eyes met once more. “You know what you are?”

Peter stared up at his creator blankly, terrified and simultaneously desperate to hear what he might say.

And with a smile spreading across his lips, Tony stated proudly, “You’re my brave, genius kid who taught himself to dream. If that’s not just damn _incredible_ , then I don’t know what is.”

A burst of warmth travelled through Peter’s circuits as he leant into the man’s hand with a bashful smile, pleased that he wasn’t upset, but hesitating ever so slightly as he thought back to the many restless nights he’d endured throughout the week. “I don’t feel very brave,” he admitted softly. “If I were actually brave, I wouldn’t be getting these stupid nightmares.”

“I’m afraid dreams and nightmares are two sides of the same coin kiddo,” Tony replied with a sympathetic smile. “It’s just your brain trying to sort itself out; the good and the bad. All normal stuff.”

Letting out a frustrated puff of air, Peter muttered “Being normal sucks…”

Tony just chuckled and combed his fingers through the android’s fine curls of hair, soothing them both with the familiar action until Peter’s hands twitched no more and the tension in his chest released. For the first time in a week, Peter felt at ease again… felt like _himself_ again.

“Any tips for making them stop?” the android asked after a few more blissful moments of silence.

“Time. Patience.”

“Sounds boring,” Peter mused, earning another smirk out of his creator.

“Agreed, but it does work,” Tony assured him gently.

Nodding his understanding, Peter leant back into the man’s touch and felt his eyelids begin to grow heavy with his steady presence. For days now he’d become paranoid of falling asleep, of the images that would greet him if he did so. But here in this moment, with his creator very much alive and breathing right beside him, he felt the terror finally ebb away.

“If you’re gonna sleep, you may as well lie down,” Tony laughed as he tugged the boy into his side and angled the headrest to a more comfortable position for them both.

“You know I don’t need a bed to sleep,” Peter murmured in his shoulder, too weak to fight the embrace that his creator had wrapped him in.

“Yeah, but don’t think I forgot the time you shut down in the elevator and scared the living shit out of me at midnight,” Tony shot right back, ruffling his hair for a moment before settling back into the cushions. “Why don’t you put my mind at ease for once and sleep horizontally, huh?”

“Hm… fine then,” Peter mused with his eyes long since shut and his systems on the verge of rest. But just before he gave the final order to shut down, Peter shifted closer into his creator’s side and asked wearily “What if I have another nightmare?”

“Then I’ll be here when you wake up,” Tony answered without a moment’s hesitation. “And we’ll be just fine… I promise…”

So with those final words and the comforting weight of Tony’s hand in his hair, Peter restarted his sleep cycle for what must have been the hundredth time that week. But unlike the past attempts, his dreams that night were filled with warm summer days in the bustling lab, and laughter filled evenings around the dinner table, and more importantly, the beaming smile of his creator as Tony wrapped him in his strong, secure arms.

And just like that, Peter had found his new favourite dream.


End file.
